Abstract
Background
Chlamydia trachomatis infection is a worldwide-distributed sexually transmitted infection that may lead to infertility.
Objectives
This study aims to report the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among infertile women in Saudi Arabia.
Patients and methods
A community-based study carried out at the obstetrics and gynecology clinic at Jazan General Hospital, Saudi Arabia. The study group included 640 Saudi infertile women who were aged between 18 and 40 years and who attended the gynecology clinic for infertility examination throughout 1 year of study (from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012). The randomized control group included 100 Saudi fertile women who attended the obstetrics clinic for routine antenatal care. All recruited women were screened for chlamydia infection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of serum-specific antibodies and then retested by the McCoy cell culture technique.
Results
The prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among infertile women was high, at 15.0%. The rate of chlamydia infection detected by ELISA was 9.84%, and it was 12.03% by the culture method (P = 0.2443).
Conclusion
The high prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among Saudi infertile women demands a national screening program for early detection among infertile couples. ELISA is available as a simple screening test alternative to the culture method.
Disclosure
I hereby declare that this work was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University of Jazan Regulations and Code of Ethics for Research Programs. It was approved by the Research Review Board. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, this work is my own work. There was no contribution of any other authors. Any views expressed in the study are those of the author. The work was self-funded. In addition, I state that I have no competing interests.